The Best Source of Information about Alcoholics Anonymous

A friend mentioned the Orange Papers site to me tonight. I’d forgotten about it, as it’s been around forever, and I’m thoroughly sick of writing about AA–and reading about it, too, for that matter. (Twelve years ago, some kids torched my guest house, which was home to all of my research materials on AA and substance abuse treatment; it was almost a relief.)

Back to Orange Papers….. The site contains an amazing amount of well researched, well argued material. I’m familiar with almost all of the areas covered,, and everything I’ve seen on the site is accurate. (There’s also a lot of information on it of which I was unaware.)

It’s all there (topics in no particular order here):

AA’s actual (in)effectiveness as opposed to its claimed effectiveness

AA’s “spirituality” as very thinly disguised religiosity

AA’s origin as part of a wacko evangelical group

AA’s principles as codification of that evangelical group’s principles

The pro-Nazi statements and actions of that evangelical group’s head and other prominent members

The intellectual dishonesty of the AA program

AA’s pronounced anti-intellectualism

AA’s other cult-like aspects

Cults that have grown out of AA

And some good news: most people with alcohol problems overcome them on their own without any contact with AA; there’s some evidence that people exposed to AA do worse than those never exposed to it–in other words, AA is not necessary to overcoming alcohol problems, and could well be harmful

Don’t let the archaic appearance of the Orange Papers site put you off. Its information is accurate, amazingly thorough, and up to date.

Years ago, I tried to talk the site’s author into writing a book on AA. Unfortunately, he declined. I still wish he’d do it.

For now, instead of a book, we have Orange Papers. If you’re at all interested in AA, it’s the best place on the ‘net for information.

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I answered an article of yours from 2014 and see that you appear to be on a crusade against AA. Can you tell me why this is such an important issue for you, it seems so miniscule an issue in worldly matters.

It’s really very simple. AA hurts more people than it helps. In fact, AA kills people.

Over a million people per year are still coerced into AA attendance in the U.S., and exposed to all of the pernicious nonsense spouted by AA true believers at meetings. Many end up believing a lot of the crap — about “inevitable progression,” “inevitable loss of control,” “jails, institutions or death,” etc., etc. and end up discouraged and drinking more than they would if they had never been exposed to AA’s pernicious crap.

As for your point about AA harming people being a relatively minor matter, one could make the same point about damn near _any_ problem short of nuclear war.

Why did you raise that point? I’d be surprised if it was for any other reason than to cast aspersions on me personally. How spiritual of you.